President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats to annex Canada have our neighbors to the north looking over their shoulders.
“We are starting to feel like we just can’t trust you anymore,” former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday.
Freeland was in the running to be Canada’s next prime minister but was elbowed out by Liberal Party candidate Mark Carney, who assumed the post on Friday.
“We have to turn elsewhere because this sovereignty threat—it is a huge, huge thing, and it keeps on getting repeated, and we take that really seriously,” Freeland added, referring to President Trump’s repeated assertion that Canada should become the 51st state.
Trump has repeatedly mused about Canada becoming an American state since winning the election in November. On several occasions, he has also called Trudeau “governor.”
“In terms of the relationship, I would say it’s a combination of sadness and anger, sadness because we actually like you guys, and we know that our relationship has been mutually beneficial,” Freeland told host Mika Brzezinski. “But there is anger there, and I have to warn you, it will be hard to build back the trust.
In the latest escalation of Trump’s trade war, the president imposed 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel, which took effect Wednesday. Ottawa responded with 25 percent retaliatory levies on nearly $30 billion worth of U.S. goods.
Freeland, who served as Trudeau’s finance minister until she stepped down in December, pointed out that the U.S. has been Canada’s “friend and ally for our entire existence.”
She said Secretary of State Marco Rubio could expect Canadians to be “polite and decent” during his two-day visit but firm in defending their sovereignty.
“But I think visiting representatives of this U.S. administration should expect to hear very clearly from members of my government and my party and from just regular Canadians that our sovereignty is not negotiable, that we do not intend to capitulate, and if you hit us, we will hit back,” she warned.
For his part, Rubio has said he is not planning to discuss Trump’s threat to “take over Canada” during the visit to Quebec, the province that provides over half of America’s aluminum.
Discussing a potential mending of relations, Freeland said: “Look, I think the relationship can be repaired by getting back to a win-win when it comes to our economic relationship and by treating us with respect.
“You need to respect us, and I think that is the basis of any relationship, and it’s not that hard to do.”
Otherwise, she added, the country will “have no choice but to seek friends elsewhere.”
